Julius Obsequens

Who is Julius Obsequens?

Julius Obsequens was a Roman writer who is believed to have lived in the middle of the fourth century AD. The only work associated with his name is the Liber de prodigiis, completely extracted from an epitome, or abridgment, written by Livy; De prodigiis was constructed as an account of the wonders and portents that occurred in Rome between 249 BC-12 BC.

The work was first printed by the Venetian humanist, Aldus Manutius, in 1508, after a manuscript belonging to Jodocus of Verona. Of great importance was the edition by the Basle Humanist Conrad Lycosthenes, trying to reconstruct lost parts and illustrating the text with wood-cuts. Later editions were printed by F. Oudendorp and O. Jahn.

An aspect of Obsequens' work that has inspired much interest in some circles is that references are made to things moving through the sky. These have been interpreted as reports of unidentified flying objects, but may just as well describe meteors, and, since Obsequens, probably, writes in the 4th century, that is, some 400 years after the events he describes, they hardly qualify as eye-witness accounts.

For the year 100 BC, for example, Obsequens writes: